Easter Church Ladies

So polite. Wearing gloves. And hats. Hair in Easter colors. Church ladies; prissy, smiling, crackling in their perfumes. Flowered dresses, sitting primly on the hard wooden pews, Singing in loud overtones songs they have known for decades. Smiling at the Easter bonnets, and the tiny white lace gloves Worn only by them and the toddlers now, everyone else in Blue jeans, plaids, regular street clothes, Sunday best no longer applies Still they come, in their lavender hair, wearing their Bibles In sheaves and satchels, letting their slips hang a bit in back. Not as lively as before, but still with sparks they throw the Way of Old Bill, the only bachelor over eighty, the reason some still come.